The last two days were for instructor development. Only about 6 students were left at this point, I was the only one there who had never served in the/a military. 3 months of army ROTC was hardly a peek at anything. The days were relaxed, we didn’t shoot, we didn’t get dusty.

We reviewed over all the classes re had received, organized our notes on them, practiced teaching them back to the instructors, as if we were going to hold our own sniper course. with a little bit of help and coaching, we were ready to teach a course better than our instructors had taught us. Lunch break, the airforce guys were joking, and challenged me to eat 2 MRE crackers with no water in 2 minutes. I bet I could have done it. They didn’t have the stated 20$ on them, so I didn’t do it. I regret not taking that challenge. Oh well, no second chances. I need to learn to jump on opportunities without over thinking them. I may get more out of life like that.

The last day, Lance brought a student for us, his girlfriend. 2 other students scheduled had dropped out last minute. We spent the entire day going over one class at a time, getting her set up with a rifle, shooting, fundamentals, quick classes on ranging and wind, and she was out shooting hundred yards, “BAM!” “plink” 1st round hits. Good instruction.

With some down time, while other students were still teaching, after we had finished our classes, Moor and I hung out with Colin, he gave us a chance to range and shoot some more of the targets, as Moore had taken basic sniper 1.5 years ago, and I had just cut my barrel, and needed new data on my rifle. I had bought a laser range finder and binoculars from cabelas on sale, but the LRF turned out to be a piece of crap, barely able to range the mountainside at 330yards away. Colin pointed out and dared me to go run and touch the 1 mile target. We ranged it at 1850 yards. I regret not getting a chance to do it.

We packed up, Colin was heading home to Tuscon, Lance was going to do a private instruction day, I stayed the last night. The next morning I woke to the sound of raindrops on my goretex sleeping bag cover. FINALLY. I was up early and geared up, ate breakfast, was ranging targets and organizing my data with my new LRF when Lance showed up. He said this day was going to be a strict private instruction day, and I couldn’t join in. Oh well, I gave him the 2 pages front and back that I had written for the course critique, thanked him again, bid my friend Ray farewell and good luck, and headed home for a 10 hour trip.